Is it me?? I keep three or four PCs on my desk (behind a Trendnet KVM switch), plus other machines elsewhere; the desk trio are all running F 27, Mate/Compiz. One old bad thing and a similar new one, irritating at best, are happening.
The old one is that the size of my Mate Terminal, particularly its font, often changes when I reboot. So I have to re-edit half a dozen profiles before I can use them: the new size is usually either eye- splittingly small to read, or so big that no ordinary sentence will stay on a single line.
The new and worse one is that the same thing has started happening to my panels. (I keep four, with lots of launchers on each.) Enlarging a panel makes several launchers disappear; as it is, I have to keep a couple smaller than I like in order to make stuff fit.
If something in my configs is doing this, what, and how can I fix it? If it's Fedora, let me know what more data to supply, please!
On 12/21/2017 10:31 AM, Beartooth wrote:
Is it me?? I keep three or four PCs on my desk (behind a Trendnet KVM switch), plus other machines elsewhere; the desk trio are all running F 27, Mate/Compiz. One old bad thing and a similar new one, irritating at best, are happening.
The old one is that the size of my Mate Terminal, particularly its font, often changes when I reboot. So I have to re-edit half a dozen profiles before I can use them: the new size is usually either eye- splittingly small to read, or so big that no ordinary sentence will stay on a single line.
The new and worse one is that the same thing has started happening to my panels. (I keep four, with lots of launchers on each.) Enlarging a panel makes several launchers disappear; as it is, I have to keep a couple smaller than I like in order to make stuff fit.
If something in my configs is doing this, what, and how can I fix it? If it's Fedora, let me know what more data to supply, please!
I'd suspect the KVM is at fault here. Can you try connecting one of the problematical machines DIRECTLY to the monitor/keyboard/mouse (not using the KVM), then fix things and reboot several times to see if the problem persists?
In my experience, KVMs can cause a lot of problems when systems come up because they don't always report the EDID info of the monitor if it's connected to one of the other systems at the time the OS or hardware queries it. That can cause Fedora (or any other system) to either use the wrong data or resort to default settings that may not be, uhm, optimal.
You could use a fixed configuration for the display and not rely on the system to autosense it. How you do that depends on if you're using Xorg or Wayland. I'm not sure how to do it with Wayland, in the old days you'd have an Xorg.conf file that buggered things. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital ricks@alldigital.com - - AIM/Skype: therps2 ICQ: 22643734 Yahoo: origrps2 - - - - BASIC is the Computer Science version of `Scientific Creationism' - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thu, 21 Dec 2017 18:31:57 +0000 (UTC) Beartooth wrote:
behind a Trendnet KVM switch
KVM switches are notorious for screwing up EDID info describing the monitor's capabilities.
One thing you can do to fix this is provide your own EDID info on the kernel command line:
On Thu, 21 Dec 2017 18:31:57 +0000, I Beartooth wrote:
Is it me?? I keep three or four PCs on my desk (behind a Trendnet KVM switch), plus other machines elsewhere; the desk trio are all running F 27, Mate/Compiz. One old bad thing and a similar new one, irritating at best, are happening.
[....]
If something in my configs is doing this, what, and how can I fix it? If it's Fedora, let me know what more data to supply, please!
First off, my apologies for delay and my copious thanks to both!
Getting back to this, I find a little, but not much, in the way of Xorg.conf files, all in /etc/X11; but there's a whole lot (according to the 'search for files' button on the panel) of names containing "wayland," most of them linuxxy-looking. Wikipedia also lists Fedora 25+ as an early adopter. (I'm running F 27 on all three machines.)
Otoh, both 'rpm -q' and 'dnf install' disavow all acquaintance with wayland or Wayland.
What I know of Wayland would go in a gnat's eye. Neither 'man wayland' nor 'info wayland' is any help -- and the Wikipedia article is daunting, to put it mildly.
lshw got nothing. I installed hwinfo, and tried "hwinfo|most" by itself [Good goddlemityDAMN!], and piped to grep with various search terms. I think the monitor is a Dell P2311H (Wpedia didn't find that, but it's what I think I see flash by during boot messages), and I'm pretty sure the display is 1920x1080. The entry for that under EDID at kernel.org is
/* EDID */ #define VERSION 1 #define REVISION 3
/* Display */ #define CLOCK 148500 /* kHz */ #define XPIX 1920 #define YPIX 1080 #define XY_RATIO XY_RATIO_16_9 #define XBLANK 280 #define YBLANK 45 #define XOFFSET 88 #define XPULSE 44 #define YOFFSET (63+4) #define YPULSE (63+5) #define DPI 96 #define VFREQ 60 /* Hz */ #define TIMING_NAME "Linux FHD" /* No ESTABLISHED_TIMINGx_BITS */ #define HSYNC_POL 1 #define VSYNC_POL 1 #define CRC 0x05
#include "edid.S"
but that's as far as I've gotten. I'm hoping someone here will tell me there's a file on each PC that I can just paste the above into: most of it is Geek to me.
I found the Wayland developers' list on Gmane, but that's way to Helen Gone over my head. I did not find a users' list.
On 01/19/18 02:41, Beartooth wrote:
but that's as far as I've gotten. I'm hoping someone here will tell me there's a file on each PC that I can just paste the above into: most of it is Geek to me.
Along with looking at https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/EDID/
as pointed to by Tom, you should also look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/kernel_mode_setting#Forcing_modes_and_E...
Basically, because you have a KVM that doesn't relay the EDID data from the monitor to the kernel faithfully you'll need to override it. The link above gives information on how to do that. The hard part can be getting the actual EDID information from your monitor to place in /usr/lib/firmware/edid . I only have experience doing that with nVidia binary drivers where it is easy to do with their nvidia-settings utility. There is a monitor-edid package available which supplies monitor-get-edid which may or may not work. If you install it, you'll probably find it gets a selinux error which you can fix easily. But it won't work for me after that but that may be due to my choice of drivers.
Anyway, something like this happened to me quite some time ago. I found the least painful thing to do was to research and then go out and buy a good KVM. I no longer have the need for KVM so I can't recommend a product. But that is what I would do. Not only would it solve the problem for me with the least amount of pain/effort I wouldn't have to go through the same process in the event of a fresh install or another reason.
On Fri, 19 Jan 2018 11:19:25 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
On 01/19/18 02:41, Beartooth wrote:
but that's as far as I've gotten. I'm hoping someone here will tell me there's a file on each PC that I can just paste the above into: most of it is Geek to me.
Along with looking at https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/EDID/
as pointed to by Tom, you should also look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/
kernel_mode_setting#Forcing_modes_and_EDID
Basically, because you have a KVM that doesn't relay the EDID data from the monitor to the kernel faithfully you'll need to override it. The link above gives information on how to do that. The hard part can be getting the actual EDID information from your monitor to place in /usr/lib/firmware/edid .
I did cd /usr/lib/firmware, followed by ls|grep edid -- first as user, and then as root. No hits either way. Does that mine is elsewhere? Or that its absence *is* the problem?
If the latter, can I simply put the kernel.org file into /usr/lib/ firmware? And uncomment -- what? All of it?
I only have experience doing that with nVidia binary drivers where it is easy to do with their nvidia-settings utility. There is a monitor-edid package available which supplies monitor-get-edid which may or may not work. If you install it, you'll probably find it gets a selinux error which you can fix easily. But it won't work for me after that but that may be due to my choice of drivers.
Remember I know precious little (beyond the jargon -- I'm a linguist, after all). Messing with anything kernel-related OR selinux- related sounds to me like a minefield for fools. "Here, hold my beer ...."
Anyway, something like this happened to me quite some time ago. I found the least painful thing to do was to research and then go out and buy a good KVM. I no longer have the need for KVM so I can't recommend a product. But that is what I would do. Not only would it solve the problem for me with the least amount of pain/effort I wouldn't have to go through the same process in the event of a fresh install or another reason.
That sounds best for me, too; so I have asked my go-to LUG. Many many thanks!!
On 01/20/18 01:48, Beartooth wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jan 2018 11:19:25 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
On 01/19/18 02:41, Beartooth wrote:
but that's as far as I've gotten. I'm hoping someone here will tell me there's a file on each PC that I can just paste the above into: most of it is Geek to me.
Along with looking at https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/EDID/
as pointed to by Tom, you should also look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/
kernel_mode_setting#Forcing_modes_and_EDID
Basically, because you have a KVM that doesn't relay the EDID data from the monitor to the kernel faithfully you'll need to override it. The link above gives information on how to do that. The hard part can be getting the actual EDID information from your monitor to place in /usr/lib/firmware/edid .
I did cd /usr/lib/firmware, followed by ls|grep edid -- first as user, and then as root. No hits either way. Does that mine is elsewhere? Or that its absence *is* the problem?
I think you totally mis-understand EDID. The format of the EDID is a standard. There is no need for the kernel to have the EDID of every model of monitor in a database. Each byte of data in the EDID has a standard significance and is simply parsed to know the capabilities of the monitor.
So, if your monitor/KVM is corrupting the EDID the kernel can't parse it properly and you get inconsistent monitor settings.
If that is the case, you need to *force* the system ignore the EDID supplied by the monitory/KVM and use a "canned" EDID by using the procedure in the archlinux link.
If the latter, can I simply put the kernel.org file into /usr/lib/ firmware? And uncomment -- what? All of it?
I only have experience doing that with nVidia binary drivers where it is easy to do with their nvidia-settings utility. There is a monitor-edid package available which supplies monitor-get-edid which may or may not work. If you install it, you'll probably find it gets a selinux error which you can fix easily. But it won't work for me after that but that may be due to my choice of drivers.
Remember I know precious little (beyond the jargon -- I'm a linguist, after all). Messing with anything kernel-related OR selinux- related sounds to me like a minefield for fools. "Here, hold my beer ...."
Anyway, something like this happened to me quite some time ago. I found the least painful thing to do was to research and then go out and buy a good KVM. I no longer have the need for KVM so I can't recommend a product. But that is what I would do. Not only would it solve the problem for me with the least amount of pain/effort I wouldn't have to go through the same process in the event of a fresh install or another reason.
That sounds best for me, too; so I have asked my go-to LUG. Many many thanks!!
That would be for the very best. It is a simple, and permanent, solution.
On 01/19/2018 09:48 AM, Beartooth wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jan 2018 11:19:25 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
On 01/19/18 02:41, Beartooth wrote:
but that's as far as I've gotten. I'm hoping someone here will tell me there's a file on each PC that I can just paste the above into: most of it is Geek to me.
Along with looking at https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/EDID/
as pointed to by Tom, you should also look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/
kernel_mode_setting#Forcing_modes_and_EDID
Basically, because you have a KVM that doesn't relay the EDID data from the monitor to the kernel faithfully you'll need to override it. The link above gives information on how to do that. The hard part can be getting the actual EDID information from your monitor to place in /usr/lib/firmware/edid .
I did cd /usr/lib/firmware, followed by ls|grep edid -- first as user, and then as root. No hits either way. Does that mine is elsewhere? Or that its absence *is* the problem?
If the latter, can I simply put the kernel.org file into /usr/lib/ firmware? And uncomment -- what? All of it?
I only have experience doing that with nVidia binary drivers where it is easy to do with their nvidia-settings utility. There is a monitor-edid package available which supplies monitor-get-edid which may or may not work. If you install it, you'll probably find it gets a selinux error which you can fix easily. But it won't work for me after that but that may be due to my choice of drivers.
Remember I know precious little (beyond the jargon -- I'm a linguist, after all). Messing with anything kernel-related OR selinux- related sounds to me like a minefield for fools. "Here, hold my beer ...."
Anyway, something like this happened to me quite some time ago. I found the least painful thing to do was to research and then go out and buy a good KVM. I no longer have the need for KVM so I can't recommend a product. But that is what I would do. Not only would it solve the problem for me with the least amount of pain/effort I wouldn't have to go through the same process in the event of a fresh install or another reason.
That sounds best for me, too; so I have asked my go-to LUG. Many many thanks!!
I wouldn't use a Belkin KVM, regardless of what your LUG might say. They have shown themselves to be quite unreliable.
If all the machines are on the same LAN and your primary concern is simply sharing the keyboard and mouse (and can live with multiple monitors), then I'd recommend using synergy. You run synergys (server) on the primary machine with a config file that defines how the screens are physically configured (e.g. primary machine is "X", "Y" is to the left of "X", and "Z" is to the right of "X"). Sample:
------------------ CUT HERE ---------------------------------------- [root@prophead ~]# cat /etc/synergy.conf # Synergy configuration for Rick Stevens at AllDigital # Author: Rick Stevens, AllDigital, Inc. # Last Edit: 19 January 2018 # # Note: This is used on prophead ONLY which runs synergys (the # server application) and synergy uses TCP port 24800, so open that # on the firewall.
section: screens prophead: golem4: macbook: end
section: aliases prophead: 192.168.1.50 golem4: 192.168.1.52 macbook: 192.168.1.60 end
section: links # Screen configuration: # +---> macbook <------> prophead (main) <----> golem4 (laptop) <---+ # +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ prophead: right = golem4 left = macbook golem4: left = prophead right = macbook macbook: left = golem4 right = prophead end
section: options switchDelay = 500 screenSaverSync = true end ------------------ CUT HERE ----------------------------------------
The other machines run synergyc (client). Using the above layout, when I bump the cursor over the right edge of the primary display (prophead), the cursor and keyboard switch over to the machine defined to be on the right of the primary machine (in this case, golem4). If I hit the right edge of golem4 (or move it off the left of prophead), it switches to the macbook.
Like I said, this just shares the keyboard and mouse...you still need multiple monitors, but it works for my needs. And the cut-and-paste buffer runs on the server (so you can cut from golem4 and paste it into the macbook if you want). Handy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital ricks@alldigital.com - - AIM/Skype: therps2 ICQ: 22643734 Yahoo: origrps2 - - - - "Swap memory error: You lose your mind" - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Beartooth -
Ed Greshko -
Rick Stevens -
Tom Horsley